Topeka school board approves bond proposal

A potential Topeka Unified School District 501 bond issue could mean closing the current Capital City school and splitting it into two programs -- one for middle schoolers and one for high schoolers.

A potential $143 million bond issue came one step closer Monday evening to reaching voters on an April ballot.

At a special meeting, the Topeka Unified School District 501 school board voted unanimously to move forward with the proposal.

To put the bond to a public vote this spring, the district will next publish a public notice and seek permission from the Kansas State Board of Education because of the large potential sum.

The district is proposing to issue bonds in 2014 and 2016 and repay them over three decades. Administrators and investment firm Piper Jaffray, which has been advising the district on the potential bond issue, say that would be possible without affecting the district’s mill levy.

The combination of current interest rates and the district’s high bond rating factor into that, said Bill Henderson, a managing director of Piper Jaffray. Additionally, the district is finishing payments on its previous bonds and would currently qualify for 44 percent state aid on bond construction and interest costs.

“You have few opportunities when the stars are all coming together,” superintendent Julie Ford told the board in response to questions about financing the bond issue. “It's really a pretty rare opportunity.”

The school board discussed many of the details of the bond issue at recent meetings, including a three-hour meeting last Thursday.

Key points of discussion have included Capital City School, the district’s program for middle and high school students with emotional and behavioral disabilities.

The board gave its support Monday evening to a facility committee recommendation to move the high school section of the Capital City program to another building nearby on the Kanza Education and Science Park property.

The middle schoolers at Capital City would move to a tailored add-on at Jardine Middle School.

Meanwhile, three elementaries would close: Bishop, Avondale West and Shaner. Students would move to a new elementary to be built next to Jardine Middle School, creating a preschool through 8th grade campus similar to the Eisenhower-Ross and Chase-State Street campuses.

The district’s program for elementary students with emotional and behavioral disabilities, currently located within the Hope Street Academy high school building, would also move to the new elementary, which would include rooms tailored for that purpose.

The building currently used for Capital City would become a career center for high school students, modeled on a similar program in the Blue Valley district.

The bond issue proposal also includes $40.7 million in security improvements, $23.5 million in technology spending, and other projects.

Security improvements include building storm shelters that meet federal specifications for withstanding strong tornadoes, and adding bullet-resistant window film and other security details to schools.

The technology spending includes buying laptops or tablet computers to achieve one-to-one student-to-device ratios at the secondary level.

The board could still tailor details of the proposal further before the public vote in April.